


Seeking Water's Run

by InjaMorgan



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Episode 88, Gen, Spoilers, or what I call: a knee-jerk-fic, this is angst i guess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-04
Updated: 2017-03-04
Packaged: 2018-09-28 06:36:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 783
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10077665
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InjaMorgan/pseuds/InjaMorgan
Summary: ~Spoilers for Episode 88~A river was tugging at his boots, and his Queen stood behind him.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Hello to my very first published Critical Role fic.
> 
> And yes, I'm the one who does stuff like this.
> 
> The title of this fic, and the description of the Realm of Death are unapologetically stolen from Garth Nix's "Old Kingdom" series, that you should totally read if you haven't. Good books, good books.

-

darkness

bright light, stars around him–

Vax’ildan was standing in ankle-deep, frigid water. He blinked slowly, looking at his feet, then up. He was surrounded by what looked like a shallow pond, or a river.

He could hear the roaring of rapids from somewhere. A river then.

There was a pull in his chest, as if he had to follow it.

“My champion.”

Her hand on his back was cold, but comforting. A shiver ran down his spine as he realised where he was.

“I’m dead.”

Every other time when he had talked to Her, it had been in Her own realm that was outside Death itself.

This river though would carry him to the Realm Beyond. Vax looked towards where the rapids seemed to be, and felt once again the urge to go there. To go on.

“I will not stop you from following the pull, my Champion,” she said softly into his ear. He blinked, and suddenly she was before him, mask white and pristine as ever, red eyes staring at him, but only human-sized.

“You deserve the rest, after all.” She extended her hand and touched his cheek; her skin was icy, but still Vax leaned into the touch, closing his eyes for a brief moment.

“Do I even have a choice?”

“You are Fate-Touched, Vax’ildan. Of course you have a choice.”

He opened his eyes and found himself standing on Her hand again, around him the many threads of Fate.

“This is yours.” Her mask was looming over him, a raven claw holding up a single thread that shimmered red. No – black. “Still unbroken.”

Vax sank to his knees. There was a hollowness in him, and it was hard to breathe. “I … I don’t understand.”

“It is not the nature of mortals to understand the ways of the gods, my champion. You believe in me, but you do not trust me. Yes, you even fear me!”

The thread in the raven claw before him glowed, and the glow extended to the endless web under him, and the light was reflected in Her crimson eyes. Vax felt nauseous.

“Did I not tell you about your purpose as my champion? To guard the passing souls, to protect the sanctity of the cycle, and to fight the abominations that threaten the balance? Did I not give you a clear path?”

The hand Vax was standing on shifted, and then he was falling, falling, with no breath in his lungs to scream. He fell past thousands and thousands of threads in every colour of the rainbow, some touching him, but none halting his fall. Above him the Raven Queen’s mask, unmoving.

Again, he closed his eyes.

“I bent her Fate for you, and I will bend your Fate. It has not reached its end, my beautiful champion.”

Vax was standing in the river again, but the rapids were further away, and behind him. He just knew.

_… you’re my twin brother, I wouldn’t know …_

“They are calling for you already.” The Raven Queen was once again human sized, standing next to him. “You can go back to them, if you so want.”

_… how to live with my other half, Vax, please come back …_

“I still don’t understand, my Queen,” he said slowly, looking at the endless water before him. “I expected you to be more…”

“Evil? Demanding?” She laughed, and it was an eerily human laugh.

  _… second home in Whitestone, as we’ve truly become …_

“Vax’ildan, my sweet champion. I would never expect more from you than what you already did before you entered my service.”

_… a family, and I don’t want to lose a single member of it …_

He took a deep breath, and almost felt like he needed to cough. The Raven Queen laid Her hand on his shoulder, and when he turned to face Her, She wasn’t wearing her mask anymore.

“Do not think I’m not guiding you,” She said, smiling. ”Your service has been just a few short weeks, months; a year. And yet you have already done so much for me.”

_… Vax._

The voice echoed throughout his mind, punching him in the sternum and robbing him of any other thought.

_… Vax, please, I want you to stand next to me when I’m back in Zephra and finish my Aramente.  
I can’t … I can’t do it when I know that I’m the reason you’re dead … _

“Go, Fate-Touched. It’s time.”

The Raven Queen shoved him, and Vax fell into the water, which swallowed him in an icy embrace.

–

_… not working? The symbols …_

_… Queen is strong here and Sarenrae …_

_… put him in the …_

–

darkness

stars, and red, and–

Gasping, Vax’ildan broke through the surface of the blood-filled pool in the Raven Queen’s temple.

**Author's Note:**

> umm, yes.
> 
> If anyone is wondering, the offerings came from Vex, Percy and Keyleth of course (she rolled a nat20, because I feel like this is something the dice gods would do) And yes, for the ritual to work they put his body into the pool of blood.  
> And if anyone else is wondering why the Raven Queen said that Vax has been in her service for a year: Episode 89 will be exactly one year after episode 44 - "The Sunken Tomb" :D
> 
> But now I'll go back to my blanket fort until next Thursday.


End file.
